Sunday, December 15, 2013

When I am blessed with nice cards I don't really want, the best thing in the world is to turn them into cards I do actually want. I do this through a magical process called 'trading'.

I know, sounds like something out of a Harry Potter book, but it actually works!

So when I came upon some Twins autographs from this year's Heritage set, I waved my magic wand in the direction of David AKA Rhubarb Runner from "é rayhahn, rayhahn" and those Twins magically turned into roiders for my SCAM Project and a major power hitter from the 60's!

Take a look:

OK, Boggs isn't a roider. But I really like these Leather and Lumber cards, though I can't put my finger on why. The others will definitely find a home in the SCAM Project. I am doing a section of cards with multiple roiders that the Arod/Giambi will fit right in to.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Card show! Just like Christmas for me. And if you've been reading, you know I was a dealer, not just a customer at this one! I asked for advice from you, my readers, and got a good bit, so this is the recap. To break up the post I will show off a card or two that I picked up for myself along the way. Like these:

The Bonds is pretty cool looking in the scan, even better in real life. Maybe it makes it into the SCAM project, maybe my personal collection. The 'Face Off' card is really cool. I totally remember that world series, and it's not every day that you see a Brave and a Twin on the same card. Oh, and it's #d /500. Sweet! Last is a David Wright minor league issue. What a kid!

So in a previous post, I outlined what I expected to sell.

Nickel Boxes - Baseball (~8000 cards), Basketball (~8000 cards) and Football (~3000 cards)
I got a lot of lookers, and sold a decent amount, but nobody took me up
on whole 5000 count boxes for $25. Oh well. I left with about 90% of
these still in my possession, which was a disappointment. Still, I
estimate that I made about $40 on these, which paid for my table.

Now THIS goes straight to the SCAM Project! I have one page that is just cards of multiple roiders, and this may be the best of the bunch.

Dime Boxes - Baseball(~2500) and Basketball(~1000)
Lots of lookers here too. I discounted these as it got later in the day. I figure I sold in the neighborhood of 400 Baseball and 400 Basketball. After discounts, I think I made about $65 on the dime boxes.

These are two of my favorites from the whole show. Russel Wilson is looking pretty good up in Seattle, and I couldn't pass up his baseball RC. The Ichiro is a Japanese issue from the 2000 season. It's gaudy and Japanese! What's not to like?

70's commons (~2000) from 1971-75
Many of these have condition issues and they are all commons with very
few semistars.
These were pretty popular for looking, but few buyers. Until mid way through the show, I sold the whole box for $40. Good deal for the buyer, and I got rid of them!

These look pretty similar in the scan and are even tougher to differentiate in person. But one is #d /1000 and the other is #d /25! Great find in the dollar bin!

Plastic semi-rigid cases with price tags on them (~750, fills a 3000 count box)
No interest in these whatsoever. Oh well.

These were in a 'well loved' box. The Newcombe was $3 and the 1950 Bowman was $2. I felt awesome about both! That is my 1st 1950 Bowman.

And in the last hour, I got a little desperate to get rid of stuff and offered a 5000 count box to one of the few kids at the show for free. I had 2 of them left, and the kid couldn't decide which one he wanted. He kept looking through one and then the other, trying to decide which one was better. It was kind of hilarious!

Finally, his dad insisted that he pick. He asked if he could transfer a couple of cards from one box to the other, I said sure, and he went away happy. Probably the highlight of the show. And I didn't have to carry that box out!

All said, I think I grossed about $145, which was great by me. I got rid of about 10000 cards which was REALLY great by me. I spend a lot of what I made, and had a lot of fun too. If you have a ton of unwanted cards, I'd recommend it.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

You get a nine pack today! Each of these cards make me smile for different reasons.

Dream Team Robbie Alomar - He's leaping out of nowhere! Literally nowhere! For effect!Pinnacle Tribute George Brett - This card is great. No Brett, just the infamous bat. It has a sinister feel to it. I love it!Dream Team Frank Thomas - Staged pose with a huge bat. Hilarious. Oh what, that's his normal bat? Oh.84 Fleer Larry McWilliams - Here's a cute idea, hold this card of yourself! Maybe it'll take the focus off your funky Pirates hat. And your mustache!84 Fleer Jay Johnstone - Rain delay. Time to get out my Budweiser head-brella! Yay!91 Topps Wade Boggs - Overused now, but this was one of the first good sky background card. And since Boggsie was a fave of mine, I always loved this card.83 Fleer Champ Summers - Born in 1946, that makes Champ 36 years old on this card. I'm 40 and I'm sure glad I don't look that old! Then again, he played in MLB and I'm a scrub...84 Fleer Glenn Hubbard - Holy famous snake card batman! We've all seen it, but I stll giggle each time I run across this one.80 Topps Garry Maddox - The man is HAPPY! The man is HAIRY! The man is STYLISH! I love it. Makes me want to play baseball.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Well, this year's project doesn't look like it will end like I had hoped. Not because I didn't get enough support from all of you though! I got a lot of great steroids infused packages from around the blogosphere. Thanks for those!!!

No, the problem is with me. I knew that getting the Topps Base runs for each of the players would be the toughest and I needed to focus on that. But I didn't. The lure of shiny inserts and refractors stole my attention at all of the shows I went to.

So I am short a lot of base cards for a lot of the players. Here is a list of what I still need:

It's now basically one month to go, and at the only show that I will make it to, I will be a dealer and may not have much time to look through boxes in search of base cards. So if you have any of the cards above and are willing to send them my way, please let me know! I can also use a Canseco and Bonds relic card.

It looks like this project will drag on past the end of the year, and really, that's OK. As long as I get it done soon and can put it to bed. I have several projects in mind for next year, and would like to focus on them!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I love doing my traditional end of the year / holiday giveaway contests. They are a lot of fun and I have a decent stash of stuff to give away this year. But I'm going to hold off a month. I'll make it a New Year's contest or something. I have several reasons, one of which is that I don't want to go to the Post Office this holiday season. It's horrible there.

For last years contest, you had to have commented on my blog at least once to be eligible. Mostly to make sure that only regular readers won. I'm not going to do that this year, but if you are dedicated enough to be reading this, you can get an extra entry into this year's (next year's??) contest by making a comment on this post before 11:00 PM PST on Sunday December 1st.

Right now I am thinking around seven-ish different prizes, and you would be able to enter on 3 of the seven. This extra entry would allow you to enter on a fourth or double enter on one.

Wait, you know what? Because I got very little feedback on my pitiful plea for card show help, I will offer yet another extra entry if you go to that post and comment (with a useful opinion please!) there before 11:00 PM PST on Sunday December 1st. That's right, you can get 2 extra entries total, one for commenting on the post you are currently reading, and one for commenting on this post.

And now, because walls of text are boring, a pic of the one and only Casey Stengel, way back from his playing days edition! He looks pretty chill.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

With me health getting back to normal, I have been thinking about getting started on a project that I have wanted to do for a long time. Be a dealer at a card show! And I want your input to help me be successful.

I NEED to get rid of a large number of cards. I've thought about sending large packages out to a bunch of bloggers, but there are two problems with that for me:
1. The time and effort needed to separate cards into bunches appropriate to individual bloggers. I don't have it.
2. Postage. Even regular, small time trading costs too much for me, most of the time. Large shipments, especially a bunch of them, would be completely out of the question.

So a card show blowout seems like a good idea. I get rid of cards (hopefully in the range of 25000 or so!), I make a little money (not much I expect) and people at the show get cheap cards (nothing too awesome though). It's a win all around.

So here is what I plan to sell.

Nickel Boxes - Baseball (~8000 cards), Basketball (~8000 cards) and Football (~3000 cards)
These have stars, but nothing that probably books for over $2 or $3. No completely junk cards or players, but a decent amount of junk wax too. I may give price breaks if people buy a decent amount. Like if you buy over 100 cards, they are 3 cents each or something. What do you think?

Dime Boxes - Baseball(~2500) and Basketball(~1000)
A better grade of cards here, but still not super. Here is a scan of 9 random cards I pulled from the baseball dime box.

There are better cards than these in there, and worse as well I suppose. Again, I will likely give discounts for volume.

70's commons (~2000) from 1971-75
Many of these have condition issues and they are all commons with very few semistars. I'm thinking dimes, but maybe nickels? What do you think?

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Today I'm going up against the Junior Junkie!! He's great, I doubt I will be able to beat him. Especially since he wrote almost the same thing for this round as I was going to!! Go take a look here, it is quite good. I'll wait. You back?? Good!

Like I said, he wrote the same basic thing I was planning, I guess great minds think alike. So I had to fall back on my backup plan. Here it is!!

As you probably know, here is the card I was assigned to write about:

It's a beauty ain't it? Immediately, I thought of two things. First, why is Sexy Rexy holding sooo tight to that pole, and second, where did his lips go????? I set out to find the answer!!

My research led me to this GIF of Rex from his Color Analyst days. It didn't help me understand the pole thing any better, so I moved on.

The best place to find anything out is in your own collection, so I dug in and found all of the Rex Hudler cards I could.

So what I found was a Stadium Club Master Photo. Anyone remember those? Below is a Mark McGwire Master Photo. They took the photo from the card and gave you a little more around the outside, added a nice banner and walla! you have a Master Photo. they are a little hard to store since they are so big, but they are a cool oddball, if you're into that kind of thing.

Anyway, I found the Master Photo for the Rex Hudler 'I love this pole' card. Here it is:

Right off the bat, I noticed that there is some extra stuff around the edges. Stuff that Topps must have cropped out. The detective in me perked up! This must be a clue to Hudler's strange behavior.

What could they be?? On the left, we have some skin and maybe plastic? Could be an arm. On the right, some sharp looking stick? Definitely clues, but I'm not Sherlock Holmes enough to figure it out.

What to do???

Well I don't know what you would have done, but I called up my secret contact at Topps, code named Santa Clause, and explained my predicament. He let me in on some super secret knowledge. Not only did Topps Make these awesome Master Photos cards, but a very few super-special 'Master' Master Photos!!!!!!!

Just like the Master Photos gave a little more photo around the edge, the 'Master' Master Photos give even more!

He let me take a look at the 'Master' Master Photo for the Rex Hudler card, but he warned me that I might not like what I was about to see. Since he warned me, I'll warn you. If you are faint of heart, don't scroll down....

....

....

....

....

....ok, here we go.... the 'Master' Master Photo looks like....

....

....

....

....

....

Great Scott!! No wonder Topps never released it! Direct proof of the Roids scandal! And it explains the Hudler card perfectly. Why is he holding on to the pole for dear life?? Because McGwire is about to shoot him up! Why does he appear to have no lips? Because Canseco tore them off and put them on his hand so he would have somebody to talk to!

Well, I can't believe it, but there is the proof in indisputable photographic evidence. If I didn't feel bad for Rex Hudler before, I certainly do now.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

This is my entry into Round 1 of Nachos Grande's Blogger Bracket Contest! Voting will be up soon and I will put a link to the voting page right here!

Upper Deck! If you were around in the late 80's and early 90's, Upper Deck was a game changer. The stock was different and felt 'new' somehow. They had holograms to protect us from those pesky card counterfeiters and most importantly, the photography! It was one of the things UD was best known for, and for good reason. No more 'standing in front of the spring training dugout' shots. Nope, we got three main new categories of beautiful photography. Now we were treated to in game action shots, iconic close ups and best of all, quirky, behind the scenes candids!

Here are some examples.

In game action shot, iconic close up and quirky, behind the scenes candid

For this round, if you haven't guessed, I will be writing about an Upper Deck card! And yes, it fit's one of the 3 new photography categories.

Is it an in game action shot???????

Nope.

An iconic close up???????

Nope.

So it must be quirky, a behind the scenes candid?

Yes!! Here is the card:

Hi, my name is Doug Jones and I'm a videographer!

She's a beaut, eh? Hairy, man-thing holds early 90's video camera behind rope fence. Reminds me of those caveman car insurance commercials. This card is crazy! Like Halloween costume crazy. So crazy that it made me wonder how this 'awesome photography' would fare in a costume.

Who says baseball cards can't wear a costume for Halloween?? And exactly what does a beautiful photograph on a baseball card wear for its costume?????? Why it wears other year's and brands of baseball cards!! So, for your viewing pleasure, I give you the 1993 Upper Deck Doug Jones photo in various costume's! Enjoy!

Let's start it off with Doug sporting this classy and classic 1987 Topps design!

Perhaps filming Jose Canseco's first steroids injection?

Here we have Doug dressed up as a 1972 Topps card!

The 'Stros colors on Doug's arm really pop with this design

Doug puts on the vintage in this 1955 Bowman outfit!

The video camera seems out of place in this costume...

Doug goes all out with this one! It's a 1998 Topps Gallery of Heroes insert suit!

The mullet really clicks on this one

Doug goes old school in a 1975 Topps theme.

Nice signature Dougie!

A brutal effort with this 1982 Diamond King outfit. Doug was going for classic, but couldn't pull it off.

Terrible paint job Doug!

Doug brings a little class to the Halloween party in this 1983 Topps costume.

Two Doug's on one card? Now that's class! Even if they're on different teams!

Doug is an All-Star! Great costume from the 1970 Topps set.

How did Doug even fit into that costume???

I'm partial to the 70 Topps All-Star and the 98 Gallery of Heroes, but what do you think? Which costume should Doug wear tonight to the party?? Leave me some comments and when voting opens, head on over to Nachos Grande and give me some support!!

Now this card is from 1996, which as far as anyone has supposed, was before Roger started hitting the juice and getting shots in his behind. But as you can see, he already has the rage! Or is that facial expression pain from over splitting on that split finger grip?

Either way, thanks Spiegel!

Another package came in from reader Ethan with a bunch of McGwires!! My four favorites from the package are below.

The top 2 scanned horribly, they look very nice when not on my scanner bed. This kind of McGwire inserts are hard to come by. Everyone seems to keep their harder to find Big Mac's in a safe in their basement or something. I can't complain, I hoard them myself with over 700 different McGwires in my collection.

Thanks Ethan!

And let me know if you have cool inserts of McGwire, Canseco, Palmeiro or Jason Giambi or ANY of the Topps base cards that I still need for all the steroid users.

In reality, it is a story of sorrow and woe, pretty danged near a Greek tragedy. So here we go...

Once upon a time, Alfonso Soriano was a promising young ballplayer, maybe even Hall of Fame bound! He had a rare combination of power and speed. He joined the 40/40 club in 2006. But the baseball gods were jealous of young Alfonso. He had too much, too soon. The gods felt the need to take Alfonso down a peg or two. Or three. And so the gods conspired with that great and powerful entity, Topps, in order to rob the young star of all that made him great. This is how they did it...

They conceived of a baseball card set which they named Topps Attax. The idea was simple, but the execution would be devilish. They sold the idea to young Soriano. In order to make the graphics as realistic as possible, they took him to a desolate place where the sky was low and dim and the horizon seemed too close. They dressed him in a generic uniform and handed him his favorite bat, Bomber. Then they started up the flame thrower! "For graphical effect", they said with forked tongues. "Now swing", they commanded "as hard as you can!"

For what seemed like days, they did take after take, tiring Alfonso's arms more with each violent swing. The flame thrower never stopped. The temperature always rose. Smoke billowed.

The Topps executives watched with narrowed eyes. They had plenty of wonderful shots for the card, but Soriano was not yet destroyed. "Turn up the heat" muttered one junior exec. "Move the flames closer", whispered another. All eyes turned to the VP of Player Destruction. His eyes focused on the distance and his head was cocked to the side as if listening to something that the rest couldn't hear. Finally, he turned his back so nobody could claim to have seen him speak. The words "Put him in a Cubs uniform" floated on the air, apparently from no earthly mouth.

The junior execs recoiled visibly! Murmured phrases like "too far", "so mean" and "cruel and unusual punishment" were heard. The VP of Player Destruction turned around and the mumbling stopped. An ambitious associate, not even to the level of a junior executive, stepped forward. All others hushed. "I swear, it will be done", he stated flatly.

And so it was done, Soriano was dressed in Cubs garb and placed back into the fiery batters box. The executives surrounded him chanting "Swing, swing, swing, SWING, swing, swing, swing, SWING".

Alfonso bowed his head, gathering his strength, and said softly, "As you wish".

He tensed his body in a perfect batting stance prepared for one last effort...

Since the invention of the swing, there have only been five swings that were rated the most smooth, the most pure. This one left them all behind.

Alfonso gave all, and the gods (and Topps folks) got their way. Alfonso's mighty swing took a double toll. His right forearm ripped as though lightning tore through it.

And almost as bad, his favorite bat, Bomber, cracked and split.

His career, his hall of fame future, went up in the smoke from the flame thrower. In his next 4 years for the Cubs, he never hit over .262 and was considered a bust.

But as in many great stories, Alfonso got a curtain call. Traded to the Yankees mid season, he hit 17 HR and drove in 50 in only 58 games down the stretch. A miracle? Perhaps. Perhaps not in time to save his legacy, but when you look a the career of Alfonso Soriano, consider the role that the gods and Topps had in his downfall.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

I recently went to my first card show in several months. My first, and basically only, stop was at Bill's nickel boxes. Sometimes they are junk, but other times I find gold. I'll let you decide how I did this time. Here are some of my finds!

I found a ton of serial numbered stuff, maybe 30 or more! All of these are serial numbered except the Braves 4 Star Staff card in the lower right. But that one has 3 future HOFers!

A little basketball! The Laettner and Anderson are refractors. I love finding old refractors. The Robinson is an Electric Gold parallel and has a 20x multiplier in everyone's favorite magazine. I had never seen the Electric Gold before.

And my last and probably favorite, this hammered Bo Belinsky / Jim Bouton RC. I'll pick up 50 year old hammered cardboard for a nickel any day, but when I got home with this one, I found out it is a tough to find high numbered card. At the risk of referencing Beckett twice in one post, this one carries an $80 price tag!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Many moons ago, there was a day devoted to Fathers, appropriately, if a little obviously, called Fathers Day. Since I haven't blogged since then until recently, I thought I'd share what I got that day!

First up are these two HEAVY books:

These guys have pictures of every Topps card from every set for the decade. Nice color, glossy pages, the whole shebang. A foreword by Willie Mays in both. It's the same foreword in both, and I doubt Willie really wrote it, but still cool.

The 50's book has Bowman sets in it too, even though Topps didn't own them way back then. The wife found them at a garage sale for cheap.

Sappy alert!!!!! Read below only if you are a sappy dad or like chick flicks.

But as cool as the books are, they aren't any better than the other literary works I received that day.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

I got good feedback on my 'Do I Owe You' post, but not from many people who I actually owed something. I know there are at least a few of you that I owe. Let me know at your convenience!

OK, So I updated the Steroids Project main page. Now instead of each player having their own page, all players are on one page, hopefully making it easier to search for things that you want to send me!!

My biggest needs right now are the Topps Base for each year for each player. The ones I need are all current on the main Steroids Project page. After that, I need cool inserts, refractors etc. for Jason Giambi, Raphael Palmiero and surprisingly, even a few Jose Canseco's. I can still use really cool inserts, refractors and rare parallels of the rest, but not as many. Most of the other players have tons of awesome stuff in every set, but Giambi and Palmiero, less so. Bonds, McGwire and Canseco, I still need relics or Auto's.

I hope to put this project to bed by the end of the year, so if you have anything you'd like to trade me, please let me know!!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Do I owe you in return for a trade you sent me? Did I say I'd send you cards, but never did? Have I wronged you in this or a previous life and you need cards to make things right????? Pleas let me know, because I know there are at least a few of you. You won't hurt my feelings!

I ask because I've been gone. From blogging and trading, and from most of my life's activities. I've had health issues that took a lot away from me for a long time. That's all I have to say about that. Because I'm mostly better!! And I'd like to get back to the hobby, at least baby steps. And the first step I'd like to take is to send packages to those of you who have been generous to me, but to whom I have not returned the favor.

So if you are one of those I owe, PLEASE contact me. Comment, email, whatever.

I hope to find the energy to post from time to time as well. I need to finish this years project, the SCAM Project. I have a decent stash that I have built up all year for end of the year contests in about 2 months. I'm sure there are other things I will post about.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Some bloggers have distinctive names for their blogs. Many of these come to be names that the bloggers themselves are known by. Night Owl, Play at the Plate, Dime Box Nick, The Dutch Card Guy, Baseball Dad, Coot Veal, Jaybarkerfan, Platschke, Fuji, The Dimwit, Thorzul.

If I left you out, it isn't personal, I just quick scanned my reader and picked a few.

Another blogger that fits into this category is Napkin Doon of The Adventures of Napkin Doon. I once called him Doonie, and I've felt bad about that ever since. Not so bad, however, that I passed up the opportunity to use it again to title this post.

Anyway, Mr. Doon felt the need to PWE bomb me! What a nice guy! And it was cards I needed for the Steroids Project no less!

Monday, June 17, 2013

28 days of Nickel-Box!! None of these cards are really anything I
need for my collection, so if anyone is interested in any of them, hit
me up for a spot in my PWE project! Here is day 28:

2005 Donruss/Playoff card of some sort - Miguel Cabrera #d /55

Why
I bought it: It was a nickel! I don't have a clue what this card is. I don't know what set it is from. But it is of the reigning triple crown winner and it's numbered out of 55. Gold! And it was a nickel!!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

28 days of Nickel-Box!! None of these cards are really anything I
need for my collection, so if anyone is interested in any of them, hit
me up for a spot in my PWE project! Here is day 27:

1996 Select Blue Jays Team Nucleus insert.

Why
I bought it: It was a nickel! It's just awesome. The scan doesn't show it, but the card is partially transparent, and also has a nice shimmer when you move it. This is the kind of card I'd pick up and look at even if I didn't collect them. Great composite picture too! And it was a nickel!!

A couple of packages came in recently filled with TONS of cards to help with my Steroids Project. There were so many between the two packages that my fingers are more muscular just from handling the steroid infused goodness (or badness, I guess)!

The relics at the top are my 1st for Sosa, 1st for Arod and 2nd for Giambi! I especially love the 'freed' Sosa! Jeff asked if it would be cool if he sent the Sosa after he liberated it from it's frame. I thought that was an exceptional idea. I don't particularly love the A&G frames and the mini-relic is a great addition to the project. I wonder what Jeff is doing with A&G frames???

Thursday, June 13, 2013

28 days of Nickel-Box!! None of these cards are really anything I
need for my collection, so if anyone is interested in any of them, hit
me up for a spot in my PWE project! Here is day 25:

1994 Fleer Ultra Garret Anderson RC

Why
I bought it: It was a nickel! Mostly because of the picture. Obviously a spring training or minor league shot of the young slugger. It just caught my eye. And Anderson was one of the good guys, at least as I remember it. Steady but never flashy. And it was a nickel!!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

28 days of Nickel-Box!! None of these cards are really anything I
need for my collection, so if anyone is interested in any of them, hit
me up for a spot in my PWE project! Here is day 24:

1992 Topps Dairy Queen Team USA Jim Abbott

Why
I bought it: It was a nickel! Oddballs rule, that's why!! And Jim Abbott rules! Not the best picture, but the man had only one 'baseball ready' hand and he still made the majors. And did well!! And it was a nickel!!